JOIN USPlea against 'illegal' police transfers dismissed
The Special Lokayukta Court on Thursday dismissed a private complaint involving irregularities in the transfer of deputy superintendents of police and inspectors.
The complaint, filed by V Shashidhar, accuses former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa, Home Minister R Ashoka, former Direcot General &Inspector Generals S T Ramesh and N Achutha Rao, of carrying out illegal and arbitrary transfers of police between May 2010 and September 2011, and disobeying the orders of the Supreme Court on police reforms.
Judge N K Sudhindra Rao dismissed the case, after ruling that the case did not come under the purview of the Prevention of Corruption Act and imposed a cost of Rs 5,000 on the complainant, to be paid to the government’s Drought Relief Fund.
The Judge observed that the allegations made in the case did not conform or attract any of the provisions of Section 13 (1) (d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act and dismissed the case.
Board to decide
The complainant had stated that a Supreme Court judgement in 2006 had said that there shall be a Police Establishment Board in each state which shall decide on all transfers, postings, promotions and other service-related matters of officers of and below the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police.
The establishment board shall be a departmental body comprising the Director General of Police and four other senior officers of the department.
The State government could interfere with the decision of the board in exceptional cases only after recording its reasons for doing so.
Despite this, the complainant stated that 80 per cent of the police transfers were being done based on political considerations, keeping in mind the benefits that it gets to the ruling BJP party and its legislators.
“It is very disturbing to see that police, who ought to be there as unbiased servants of the civil society, are themselves queuing up before politicians for obtaining favours much against the service rules and manuals,” Shashidhar said.
‘Politicians involved’
He further noted that the transfers were made on the recommendations of politicians, mostly the ruling party legislators, and are devoid of any public interest and that the diktat of the legislators, ministers and chief minister has been carried out by police establishment board in toto, much against the established procedure of law.
The complainant also stated the chief minister and home minister received representations from their party legislators prior to the transfer orders and promptly passed it onto the DG&IGP with their recommendation, amounting to misuse of power.
Shashidhar said that he now plans to approach the High Court challenging this order and also plans to file a public interest litigation on the same issue. “I am also considering filing a contempt petition in the Supreme Court,” he said.